Patent GB-231803-A (GB)
Title: Process for improving vegetable textile materials
IPC: D06M13/21
Filed: 1924-05-22
Abstract: A silky lustre, or a stiffening finish, or both lustre and finish, are imparted to textiles and textile materials of vegetable origin by treatment with a monohalogen fatty acid in the presence of alkali. The character of the effect produced depends on the nature and previous treatment of the textile material and partly on whether and at what stage of the process the material is stretched.  Suitable halogen fatty acids are monochloracetic acid, a -bromopropionic acid, a -bromobutyric acid, or bromosuccinic acid; and the preferred alkali is caustic soda, although others such as alkali sulphides, may be used.  The treatment is especially applicable to cotton textiles, but it may be applied to linen, flax, hemp, ramie and jute; and the materials may be in the form of fabrics, yarn in skeins or cops, or as warps.  The treatments with halogen fatty acid and alkali may take simultaneously or successively in either sequence; the materials to be treated may be either in the crude state or they may be subjected to a preliminary treatment, such as boiling with dilute alkali, bleaching or mercerizing, or they may have been prepared by treatment with a hydrolyzing or gelatinizing agent such as strong mineral acid, or ammoniacalcopper-oxide or thiocyanate solutions.  If the material is first treated with alkali, a caustic soda solution of 10-50 per cent, preferably 10-40 per cent strength, is suitable, and the quantity used may be 2-10 times the weight of the material, but usually 2-4 times the weight of the latter will be sufficient; the preliminary treatment with caustic soda lye may be conducted at 10-50 DEG  C., although if the lye is not too weak, room temperature is adequate; during the treatment with alkali lye, the goods may be subjected to high pressure as by passage between rollers, in order to improve the lustre of the finished goods; if desired, alcohol may be added to the lye; the halogen fatty acid is applied immediately after the alkali treatment, or after standing, and it may be brought into contact with the material as a solution, or as a suspension, or in the solid form; it is permissible to employ not more than 1-2 molecular proportions of halogen fatty acid to each molecular proportion of caustic alkali, but usually 0.3-0.75 molecular proportions will be sufficient.  If the material is treated with halogen fatty acid before treatment with caustic alkali, the latter treatment may proceed at leisure since the halogen fatty acid of itself has no action on the materials; the other conditions are generally as in the first case.  The material, after treatment, is washed at room temperature or at a higher temperature, and, if desired, after first drying; or it may advantageously be treated with an inorganic or organic acid, or an acid salt, or an ammonium or other salt, or with tannin or formaldehyde solution, or with any precipitant for viscose or ammoniacal-copper-oxide cellulose, and then washed and dried; and the material may be steamed before or after drying.  To obtain a high grade silky lustre, it is essential that the material should be stretched; stretching may take place during the whole of the process or during only a part or one or more stages thereof, but it is advantageous that at least a part of stretching should occur during the treatment with alkali lye.  The process may be used for the production of pattern effects, the following methods being applicable:-before treatment with the alkali solution, the material is printed with a reserve paste; the alkali lye, suitably thickened, is printed on the material; after treatment with alkali lye, the material is printed with a reserve; the material treated with alkali lye, is printed with the halogen fatty acid, suitably thickened; the material is first printed with the halogen fatty acid, and is then treated with the alkali lye. The material after it has been subjected to the lustring or finishing treatment, may be subjected to such subsidiary operations as calendering, schreinering, beetling, &c.ALSO:Oxy-alkyl and hydroxy-alkyl cellulose ethers such as are produced by treating cellulose with a monahalohydrin as described in Specification 231,807, [Class 2 (ii), Cellulose &c.], are used in the manufacture of finishes, sizes, and cements.  The cellulose ethers are used in alkali solution, and they may be mixed with other colloids and also with softening-agents such as hydrated cellulose or hydrocellulose soluble in alkalies, viscose, albuminous substances, proteins, gelatine, amyloid, starch and the like, gums, pectins, tragasols, resins, and resinous condensation products soluble in alkalies, shellac, glycerine, di-glycerine, poly-glycerine, glycols, sugars, syrups, soaps, fats, and ammonium or alkali-metal derivatives of fatty sulphonic acids such as turkey-red oil.  The article or product is fixed by treating it with a precipitating-agent, optionally after partial or complete drying. According to the examples, films are manufactured by treating a layer of a solution in aqueous alkali of 1 : 9-dihydroxypropyl cellulose or hydroxyethyl cellulose, with a precipitating bath of sulphuric acid, acetic acid, ammonium chloride, tannin, formaldehyde, or of sulphuric acid, a salt and an organic substance such as sugar, and after washing and drying treating the film with aqueous glycerine in order to increase its flexibility, fabrics are dressed by treatment with the solutions used in the first example and to which may be added a filling-material or a softening-agent or a solution of starch, the dressed fabric being dried and, if desired, steamed, and then treated with the precipitating-bath, and finally washed and dried; for the printing of fabrics the solutions used in the first example are mixed with mica, lamp black, or zinc white, and are then printed on the material, the printed fabric being subsequently treated with the precipitating-bath; book cloth is made by applying to a porous fabric, such as calico, one or more coatings of the solutions used in the first example, and to which may be added zinc white, china clay, finely-divided cellulose fibres, soot, a lake, mica, a dye-stuff, or castor oil, the fabric being dried after each coating, and finally treated with the precipitation-bath.